WHO CARRIED OUT THE EASTER BOMBINGS, AND WHY?Posted on April 25th, 2019

DHARSHAN WEERASEKERA

, 22nd April 2019

A State Minister of Defence has said on the
floor on Parliament that the ‘Easter Bombings’ of 21st April 2019
were in response to the Christchurch attacks against Muslims in New Zealand. Meanwhile, almost simultaneously, it is
reported in the internet that ISIS has claimed
responsibility for the bombings. For
now, as a private citizen, I choose to remain skeptical of the Minister’s
claims as well as the reports that ISIS is
behind the bombings, for reasons I will explain in a moment.

What is crucial is that, the bombings not
be permitted to become a pretext for the Government to join the U.S.’s
‘War on Terror.’ For the past four
years, the U.S. and India (the U.S.’s
new ally in Asia) have been busy trying to gain maximum indirect control over Sri Lanka
in order to prevent the Chinese from establishing a presence in this
country. They would have succeeded had
it not been for the collapse of the ‘National Government’ and the subsequent
collapse of the drive to enact a new Constitution.

It is also well-known that an attempt by
the U.S. to push through a defence
agreement with Sri Lanka,
one that would give the U.S.
privileged access to strategic parts of this country including its harbours is
on hold, because of the lack of support.
Finally, most Sri Lankans are counting the days to the next Presidential
and General elections. It is expected
that a pro-nationalist Government will take over and begin the process of returning
control of the country back to its population.

All this can be reversed if Sri Lanka signs on to the ‘War on Terror,’ which
would give the U.S.
a new lease to continue interfering in the internal affairs of this
country. Sri Lankan investigators must
be given sufficient time to get to the bottom of who is responsible for the
Easter Bombings. In my view,
investigators should look into whether the bombings were orchestrated by a
foreign intelligence agency/agencies (i.e. the Indian and American intelligence
services) using local or international Islamist terrorists.

a) THE MINISTER’S CLAIM THAT THE EASTER
BOMBINGS WERE A RESPONSE TO THE CHRISTCHURCH
ATTACK

To the best of my knowledge the Christchurch attack
happened on the 15th of March 2019.
The Easter Bombings in Sri
Lanka happened on the 21st of
April 2019. Many people seem to agree
that at least by 4th April 2019 and certainly by around 10th
April 2019, one of more foreign intelligence agencies had warned of some sort
of attack in Sri Lanka. Most people
agree that, in terms of scale and sophistication, the Easter Bombings have few
if any parallels in the annals of terrorism.

So, the Minister would have us believe
that, barely two weeks after the attack in Christchurch New Zealand, an obscure
group of fanatics in Sri Lanka—a group whose only significant act of violence
prior to 21st April appears to have been to shoot the secretary to
Kabir Hashim, the prominent UNP Parliamentarian![1]—managed
to, a) acquire the specialized knowledge and skill to assemble suicide vests
and/or backpacks, and also IED’s, b) acquire the requisite explosives for such
devices, c) finalize the tactical plans including logistics and surveillance for
an operation that would have made Pottu Amman proud, and d) coral together at
least seven highly trained suicide bombers.
As an American might say, ‘You gotta be kidding me!’

b) ISIS HAS PURPORTEDLY CLAIMED RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE BOMBINGS

There are reports that ISIS
has claimed responsibility for the bombings.
There are also reports that videos showing the purported bombers
pledging their allegiance to ISIS have been posted on ISIS
websites. However, I choose to remain
skeptical until our own security services confirm the links, because of the
following reasons.

First, to the best of my knowledge, when ISIS
and other international Islamist terrorists have carried out attacks outside
the Middle East, it has been against countries that have troops actively fighting
Muslims either in the Middle East or regions of
the world that ISIS and others consider to be ‘Muslim lands.’ To my knowledge, Sri Lanka does not have troops
fighting in such regions.

Second, certain experts on Islamic
terrorism/jihadism—for instance persons such as the British journalist Robert
Fisk, one of the few Western reporters ever to personally interview Osama Bin
Laden—have said that the jihadists have a tendency to warn their adversaries
before an attack, and also to offer terms.[2]

Apparently, there is an injunction in the
Koran that an adversary must be warned before being attacked. Whatever else the
Islamist terrorists may or may not be, there is no question that they take the
Koran seriously. In the case of Sri Lanka there
has been no warning, at least by the attackers.

Finally, if killing Christians was the
motive, then how does none explain the attacks on the hotels? Three hotels were targeted—Kingsbury,
Cinnamon Grand and Shangri La—which shows that at least one of the motives
behind the attacks had to be to strike at Sri Lanka’s tourism industry.

Tourism is one of the few means by which
this country is still able to earn an income.
Whoever is behind these attacks wanted to deprive the country of that
income also. So, the attack is not
purely against the Christians, it is against the country as a whole. It is difficult to imagine what Sri Lanka
could have done to ISIS or any other international Islamist terrorist group to
make them hate this country to such an extent.

c) A FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE AGENCY/AGENCIES
CARRIED OUT THE ATTACKS USING LOCAL ISLAMIST TERRORISTS/FANATICS

It is not in dispute that, the Siri-Wiki
regime that came to power in January 2015 was a boon to the Americans and the
Indians, especially the former. In
retrospect, the Siri-Wiki regime can be seen as a predictable offshoot of the
‘Pivot to Asia’ policy of the Americans begun
under the Obama Administration and continued under President Trump.

The purpose of the ‘Pivot’ is to
consolidate American military as well as economic dominance over Asia. It is
accompanied by a military/naval strategy whose primary focus is to counter
Chinese influence in the region and ultimately encircle China itself.[3] Sri Lanka
which sits at a strategically vital spot in the Indian
Ocean is crucial for both the Americans as well as the Chinese,
the former in order to further entrench their control over this region, the
latter to break out of the ‘encirclement.’

The Siri-Wiki regime has now collapsed in Sri Lanka, and
most people expect that any new Government that will take over will be heavily
pro-nationalist as well as pro-Chinese.
In short, all the hopes that the Americans/Indians had in January 2015
are now in ruins, and the ‘gains’ they made in the last 4 years are very much in
danger of being reversed.

If we consider the Easter Bombings from the
above perspective, it is impossible not to see that the bombings offer a wonderful
opportunity for the Americans to continue to pursue in this country their goals
in respect of the ‘Pivot.’

To digress a moment, if I am not mistaken,
in Somalia, under the pretext of helping the Government there fight Al Shahab,
the Americans have managed to gain various concessions that have allowed them
to make Somalia a key station in AFRICOM, the new American military command for
Africa. AFRICOM began under the Bush
Administration but was vastly expanded under the Obama Administration. It is being further extended and consolidated
under Trump.

Len Wengraf, a respected American academic,
discusses AFRICOM in its early years in the following terms, and they are highly
relevant to Sri Lanka under the present circumstances. He says:

‘The Obama Administration is also a strong
proponent of AFRICOM, a new U.S. military command for Africa officially
launched on October 1, 2008, with the frightening potential to subject Somalia
and other countries and regions to U.S. terror on a new scale. In fact, AFRICOM would mean the Somali
experience writ large for the entire continent, with local proxies and enhanced
military reinforcements.

As Nunu Kadane put it in an article titled,
‘AFRICOM, Militarization and Resource Control’:

If you’re thinking traditional bases with
thousands of military personnel, think again.
General Kip Ward has said it is not about bases” and garrisons” but
rather a network of sophisticated military operations strategically placed
throughout the continent, which can be moved around and utilized for any
purpose.

General Gates called AFRICOM a different
kind of command with a different kind of orientation, one that we hope and
expect will institutionalize a lasting security relationship with Africa.” It is a civilian-military partnership” where
diplomatic and humanitarian relief by the U.S. Agency for International
Development (USAID) will get directives from the Department of Defence.’[4]

The point is this. If under the pretext of helping to fight ISIS
and other Islamist terrorists in Sri Lanka,
the U.S.
extends something like AFIRCOM to this country, we are finished. So this is something that Sri Lankans will have
to watch out for. Also, to recall Somalia, if I am not mistaken, around 2006, the
Americans, claiming that the Somalia
had become a breeding ground for terrorists, got Ethiopia
to invade and occupy Somalia.

If Sri Lanka is portrayed as a breeding ground
for Islamist terrorists who are not just a menace to this country but to others
as well, particularly our big neighbor to the North, it is possible to envision
a scenario where the Indians might be enticed into invading and occupying this
country or at any rate setting up a puppet regime here, a regime directly
answerable to New Delhi. Such a thing
would solve both the Indians’ as well as Americans’ problems in respect of the
Chinese presence in Sri
Lanka.

To repeat, these are all opportunities that
the Easter Bombings have created. Under
the circumstances, I hope our investigators look into the possibility that the
Indian or American intelligence services had something to do with these
attacks.

RECOMMENDATIONS:

Sri Lanka
needs either a Presidential election or General Elections as soon as
possible. We must have a chance to
choose the leaders who we think are capable of meeting this new threat. Under no circumstances should the bombings or
the security situation in the country be made an excuse for postponing elections.

If Sri
Lanka is to seek foreign assistance to fight the Islamist
terrorists, it is wiser to look to Russia
than to the U.S. Russia
at least proved in Syria
that it knows how to beat the Islamists.
In contrast, as a general rule, wherever the Americans have got involved
they have only increased Islamist terrorism rather than diminished it.

In my view, the best long-term
solution to the rise of Islamist terrorism as well as Tamil separatism/terrorism
in this country is to resettle large numbers of Sinhalese people in the North
and East of the country and thereby prevent the growth of ethnic enclaves which
have tended to thrive especially over the last 30-40 years. So, a practical plan to move, say, a minimum
of 200,000 Sinhalese to the North and East over the next two years must be put
together as soon as possible.

[1] See ‘Kabir: Suspect released
by police due to powerful politician’s intervention carried out Easter attack,’
The Island, 23rd April 2019

[2] See for instance, ‘9/11 Remembered:
Robert Fisk’s Close Encounter with Osama Bin Laden,’ The Independent, 11th
September 2018, www.independent.co.uk

One Response to “WHO CARRIED OUT THE EASTER BOMBINGS, AND WHY?”

My first suspicion was RAW, which I commented here in Lankaweb. Not sure whether it appeared or not becuase most my comments are deleted for no reason.
However, we cannot rightly blame anyone, which we have an idiotic president, who was the root of every problem, from 2015 January cheating of public to win votes to current lies that he did not know. Whether he knew or not he MUST resign now.

Leave a Reply

Disclaimer: The comments contained within this website are personal reflection only and do not necessarily reflect the views of the LankaWeb. LankaWeb.com offers the contents of this website without charge, but does not necessarily endorse the views and opinions expressed within. Neither the LankaWeb nor the individual authors of any material on this Web site accept responsibility for any loss or damage, however caused (including through negligence), which you may directly or indirectly suffer arising out of your use of or reliance on information contained on or accessed through this Web site.
All views and opinions presented in this article are solely those of the surfer and do not necessarily represent those of LankaWeb.com.

This entry was posted
on Thursday, April 25th, 2019.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can skip to the end and leave a response.